Patsy

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Patsy is a given name often used as a diminutive of the feminine given name Patricia or sometimes the masculine name Patrick, or occasionally other names containing the syllable "Pat" or "Pet" (such as Cleopatra, Patience, or Patrice). Among Italian-Americans, it is often used as a pet name for Pasquale.

Historical usage

In older usage, Patsy was also a nickname for Martha or Matilda, following a common nicknaming pattern of changing an M to a P (such as in Margaret → Meg/Meggy → Peg/Peggy; and Molly → Polly) and adding a feminine suffix.^[1][2] President George Washington called his wife, Martha, "Patsy" in private correspondence, while President Thomas Jefferson's eldest daughter Martha was known by the nickname "Patsy," while his daughter Mary was called "Polly."

While usually a feminine diminutive name, from the 18th century Patsy also came to be used as a nickname for men and boys called Patrick.^[1]

The popularity of the name has waned with the rise of its, chiefly North American,^[3] meaning as "dupe" or "scapegoat".^[1] This usage comes from the early 20th Century vaudevillian Billy B. Van, whose character, Patsy Bolivar, was more often than not an innocent victim of unscrupulous or nefarious characters.

People with the given name

• Patsy Biscoe, Australian singer and performer on children's television shows in the 1960s and 1970s
• Patrick A. Patsy Brown (1872–1958), Irish-American maker of uilleann pipes
• Patsy Burt (1928–2001), British motor racing driver
• Patsy Cline (1932–1963), American country and pop music singer
• Elias Henry "Patsy" Hendren (1889–1962), British cricketer
• Patsy Kensit (born 1968), British actress and singer
• Patsy Mink (1927–2002), American politician, appointed an Assistant Secretary of State by President Jimmy Carter
• Patsy Montana (1908–1996), American country and western music singer
• Patsy O’Connell Sherman (1930–2008), American chemist and co-inventor of Scotchgard in 1952
• Patsy O'Hara, an Irish Republican hunger striker and member of the Irish National Liberation Army
• Patsy Palmer, Eastenders actress
• Patsy Rowlands (1934–2005), British actress in the Carry On films
• Patsy Ramsey, (1956–2006) mother of slain child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey

Fictional characters

• Patsy, from The Tribe; played by Sarah Major
• Patsy (Monty Python), in the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and also the 2005 Monty Python inspired musical Spamalot
• Patsy Parisi, in HBO series The Sopranos
• Patsy Sewer, a singer on the Canadian television program Instant Star.
• Patsy Smiles, a mongoose who is in love with Lazlo in the 2005 American animated television series Camp Lazlo
• Patsy Stone, one of the main characters in the 1992–2005 British television series Absolutely Fabulous, played by Joanna Lumley.
• Patsy Walker, also known as "Hellcat", a Marvel Comics superhero

References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Edgar's Name Pages, accessed 16 November 2007.
2. ↑ Common Nicknames & Their Given Name Equivalents, accessed 16 November 2007.
3. ↑ Soanes, Catherine and Stevenson, Angus (ed.) (2005). Oxford Dictionary of English, 2nd Ed., revised, Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York, p. 1291, ISBN 978-0-19-861057-1.